Cologne / Mülheim, 20 August 2014: Attended by some 900 visitors, the “Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers” conference held in Cologne on 12 and 13 August closes the gap to Europe’s leading game developer conventions. With this year’s focus on the indie developer scene, the conference effectively doubled attendance since its debut last year. The concept of multiple presentations taking place in parallel in a single large hall was readily accepted by the participants. They were able to listen to different speakers on wireless headsets and alternate between the various presentations while moving around freely in the new event venue, Dock.One in Cologne. It has been decided that there will be another Respawn installment during the 2015 gamescom week, with the exact date to be announced as soon as possible.
Renowned international speakers, including Jason Della Rocca (Execution Labs), Daniel Matros (DICE), Martijn Wenting (Bitstorm Games), Fasih Sayin (Crytek), Odile Limpach (Ubisoft Blue Byte), Teut Weidemann (Consultant) and Ralf C. Adam (flaregames GmbH), captivated their audiences as they shed light on issues such as challenges for indie developers, gender diversity, games education, digital games as a cultural element, or best-practice tips for young game developers.
A new business format entitled “Pitch & Match” saw its premiere this year. Developers were given the opportunity to present their game or product to established companies like Nintendo, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Google, Square Enix Collective and Unity3D. Engaging discussions helped to lay the foundations for promising collaborations.
Stephan Reichart, Aruba Events managing director and Respawn organizer, is more than pleased with the outcome of the conference: “The tremendous increase in attendance shows that the games industry’s interest in indie topics is growing continuously. With Respawn, we again provided a fitting environment that contributed to a vibrant exchange between AAA game professionals, indie developers and students.”
This is seconded by Tobias Kopka, Respawn’s program director: “We are very happy that the visitors liked our mix of knowledge transfer, debate and relaxed networking as much as they did. We focus on content and substance, regardless of whether it is presented by AAA studio veterans, indies, freelancers or medium-sized studios, and that seems to strike a chord with the developer community.”
For the first time, “Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers” was presented in cooperation with “GDC Europe”. Visitor benefits included special pricing offers: Respawn attendees had access to the GDC Expo, received a 10-percent rebate on a GDC Europe All Access Pass, and all GDC visitors were admitted to Respawn free of charge. Furthermore, this year saw the first jointly hosted evening event: More than 1,500 participants of both conferences followed the invitation to the “GDC Europe and Respawn Developer Night powered by flaregames” on the evening of 12 August and came to the “Bootshaus” to network and celebrate.
Additional information on Respawn – Gathering of Game Developers is provided on www.respawngathering.com,www.facebook.com/
